Sound of Giants: Reboot
Characters *Jack : A strange youth who only ever seems to appear around strawberry patches. He seems to know a lot about what is going on. *Cathy Hollins: A lonely genius *Samantha Hollins: Cathy's mother and head of the operation studying the Strawberries and the energy inside of them. Seems distant to her daughter. *Prf. Jonathan Roak: Samantha's head scientist, had found himself in an almost constant stupor trying to figure out the secrets of the Photon Energy. *General Hamilton: A military commander interested mainly in the military applications of Photon Energy. *Lt. Commander Havis: A field commander, she does not always agree with the General's opinions. Things of Note *The Giant: A luminous humaniod figure seen in Cathy's dreams. *Strawberries: The land where the events take place have been seemingly overrun by an almost viral strain of strawberries. Despite this, they are known for being unusually nutritious. *The Monument: A mysterious monument that is the subject of local rumors, and conspiracy theories. *Photon Energy: A strange, previously unnoticed energy found in the Strawberries, its concentration is always strongest near the monument. The Black Robot seems to have a similar energy but at an opposite charge. It is something of interest to the Military. Little is understood about them besides it being a form of photons. *The Black Robot: This entity, while seemingly robotic at first glance appears to have plant like characteristics, being able to partially restructure its body to field weapons, and draws energy from the sun. Part 1 "Answers, they are such a wonderful thing, such a valuable thing, so valuable, people will shelve out fortunes to get them. Answers to secrets, some small, some dangerous, some dark, but all valuable. So Mr. Roak, if you cannot get me these answers you were hired to find...why are you still here...?" The woman that spoke wore a pink jacket over a blue dress, the skirt ending just above her knees. She was blonde, with green eyes, and slim figure, and makeup, not an obscene amount, but enough to cover up the first 'symptoms' of time's assault. She sat on the other side of a thin plastic desk with a laptop integrated into it, in an office, of white tiles, a brown red rug, and pieces of modern, metal and minimalist furniture with cushions within them, and wall decorated by book shelves. Before her was a red hair main, with a sloppy appearance, blue and green striped shirt, baggy jeans and sneakers under a large white lab coat with several pockets. He wore his messy hair in a ponytail and sported stubble all across his jaw. In his hands was a laptop. "Actually it's Prf. Roak..." "Really, cause one would expect a 'Professor' to get things right..." "Ouch...my dignity, but having worked here for so long, I'm surprised I have any of that left, but hear me out. The fields, the fruits, the..." "Strawberries...?" "Yes!, Those things that I don't like to eat...it's not chemical based." She raised an eyebrow. "Okay, hold on..." He opened his laptop and began to work on it, and turned it around showing a video. It was of a strawberry in a cylinder shade container. "Okay, I've tried...everything to figure out why the strawberries here seem to have such...wonderful effects on people's well being...right?" "We sell them, among other things. So get to the point." "Okay...So we checked everything soil content, thought it was that, tests show it's strongest around the strawberries, checked underground, no abnormalities, no strange thing, etc. Then I luminosity of these things." "What...?" "I checked how much light was being given of." "I know what it means, but why...?" "Honestly, I was bored and couldn't think of anything better to do as I pretty much tried everything else. According to the machine, these things were glowing, which clearly they were, so I thought to do another test, I threw it into a magnetic chamber and I found this..." Roak pressed play. The video started as the strawberry began to float into the air and began to shine a bright blue white glow. His employer's eyes opened wide with shock, surprise at what was going on. "Best part Mrs. Hollins...I can reproduce the effect, it confirmed!" "What is...?" His excitement died down. "Um...that the strawberries are filled with...well I'm not sure what that it, but it appears to be some sort of ...light energy..." "This cannot get out..." she said cross. "Uhm...Why...?" "If people knew we were selling irradiated fruit, they would freak out!" "Okay..fair point, but the health benefits of the fruit is why were researching them. If anything we now know why this stuff is so good to people. Imagine if...if we could distill the energy, we could...I don't know we could cure a whole bunch of stuff!" "And..." said Hamilton with her hands clasped together, hiding the lower half of her face "When you figure out how to do that, we can and will see to its distribution, but until then, we keep this secret." The girl sat at the edge of the strange monument, her bike beside her. She was young, early teens, with short black hair and green eyes the same shade as Mrs. Hamilton's. She wore a grey shirt, with a denim skirt over baggy pants, and untied sneakers as she sat there sketch, mechanisms, of gears, levers, etc. She was designing machine on her art pad, next to a strange forked monument and surrounded by rolling hills of fields of wild strawberries. The monument was a somewhat U shaped structure, with a joined base but two points which bore strange symbols upon it. "Why are you here...?" asked a voice, jumping her. She looked around to see a young man, in a baggy red sweater, his hands in a pouch on the front, grey pants and sandals. The boy was swarthy in skin tone, and sported blonde and silver hair, slightly pointed ears that mixed with his slim face to give him an 'elvish' appearance and incredibly deep green eyes that had a mostly unnoticeable inner ring of gold. He stood on the brick ring around the chrome monument, looking down at her. "The heck, oi, I was here first, why are 'you' here?!" "No, I was here long before you..." said the boy with a strange stoic nature. "Really..." she said standing up "could've fooled me." "What you see is not always what you get, though I suppose it matter not, you don't seem to be a bother..." "What, do you live here or something?" "Yes, I do live...nearby..." he said as he turned to walk away. He approached the monument and touched it. "Do...do you know who built this...?" "Does it matter..?" "Well I would like to know...!" she said annoyed. He turned back to her direction. "Why are you here...?" "Pfft, as if anyone knows that answer. Why are you here...?" "Because I cannot be at home..." The girl's demeanor lightened as the words struck something in her. "Oh...I think I can relate." The boy raised an eyebrow. Then came a beeping sound. She pulled back her sleeve to reveal a watch like device that was flashing. She pressed it, ceasing its noise. "Look I'm Cathy, look can we visit tomorrow or something." "I'm always here..." said the boy still emotionless. "Okay..." Cathy got onto her bike, but her things away in its basket and drove off. The boy watched her leave over the hill, but then turned to the sky and sneered, as he saw something beyond the planet's blue cloak, in the dark beyond. Part 2 "What does that mean...?" asked the scientist, an older man in a grey and blue striped shirt and black pants. He had his identification badge as he sat next to a younger man in a light blue shirt and denim jeans. Both of them looked at the monitor which showed information pertaining to the void around their planet, particularly in one specific direction. "It means something is heading towards us, it's not a big meteor about ten, twenty tons, it will burn up in the atmosphere, and even if it didn't the computer calculated it will land in the ocean." "So what's the problem...?" "The radiation it's giving off is weird..." "What do you mean...?" "It's...the light being detected by it is fluctuating. One moment the computer says on number, then a higher number, and once it said it was a black body.of all things." "That is weird, have you gotten a photo graph, yes and no, the fluctuation is making it hard to get a good picture, it needs to get closer. The only thing I can say for sure is that...it's purple..." "This could be a discovery, of a new substance, it could be a shard of dark matter...!" "It could be aliens...?" The older man gave him a look "Geez, humor, it adds years don't you know?" "Hmph, just prepare the satellites to take a picture when it passes by." In space the object was a mass of fluctuating purple and dark energy, moving with seeming focus on the third world from the sun. It sped towards the planet, and the satellite used its thrusters to move out of the way, snapping pictures a it zoomed past them and hit the atmosphere in a fiery blaze. However, the mass did not burn up, no the fire never touched the core of the meteor, an unsettling mass of writhing metal vines coated by the dark, esoteric energy that provided it safe passage to the oceans below in a large splash where it sank to the sea floor. It was hours later when the drone came, an undersea exploration device, meant to survive at the crushing depth and relay back what it saw wirelessly. It came down and shined its lights on the site where the space rock fell, a large crater in the middle of the sea floor where it had landed. All around was dead, and ruined life, recently destroyed. However, more discerning than that, were the foot prints, large, gargantuan footprints that made a trail away from the epicenter of the crater. Cathy wore her peach pajamas as she sat in her bed, reading, a long sleeved shirt and pants that clashed with the sea green tone of her sheets, not that she cared, but it did irk her mother. She sat in bed, the piece of furniture occupying one side of the room, beneath several shelves for awards in 'Destructobot Demolition', 'Junior Engineering' and other competition that revolved around putting things together. The other side of her room was littered with unfinished projects, or abandoned machines covered in white cloth. Cathy held no interest in these things as she sat reading a magazine about the latest breakthroughs and theories in robotics. In rolled a chest piece shaped automaton with an electronic face, It carried on a tray a plastic container of strawberries, the large and almost bulbous in shape variant of the fruit found in these lands. "Cathy..." said the robot, with a prerecorded message "It's mom, I'm going to be late tonight. So sleep tight and take your meds, and stop reprogramming the butler!" "Hmph..." said Cathy, pressing the green button in the middle of the screen to tell the robot that the message had been received "At this point, it would be more interesting if your messages said you were coming home on time..." She took the container and shooed away the robot, who left the room, closing door behind it with an extendable mechanical arm. Cathy continued to read, now eating the strawberries her mother continued to recommend for her. She continued to read, and she ate, stubbornly fighting off sleep as the night rolled onward. One by one she devoured the fruit, and page by page, she studied and absorbed the information, memorized the schematics, it did not help however, as she teetered on the edge of sleep, her eyes began to play tricks on her, as the blueprints seemed at times to move. However, before she realized it however, she was asleep and her schematics, her blueprints, had morphed into blue wireframe models of humanoid machines, most of them heroic in build and armed with weapons. They stood there against a backdrop of darkness until it came, a wave of bushes, which she recognized were strawberry bushes. The leaves, the fruit, the roots, moved as if alive and crawled into the wire framed, filling them out and morphing into mechanical joints and armor plating. The robots, now brought to life cheered and roared and took combat stances and aimed their weapons. Cathy turned around to see what had them riled up. On the other side of the ethereal plane was a monstrous mass of thorny black vines, sporting glowing purple spheres, hanging like fruit, that gave it all a sinister purple aura. The robots charged, and the balls of light shot forward becoming beams of energy that devastated their numbers. Cathy ducked in fear only to find herself far away. The robot army ran into the thorn monster only to be overwhelmed and lost beneath the branches. Out of the mass arose a feminine figure long hair and obsidian black skin mixed with purple markings. It was clearly laughing at the massacre it had just committed. That was until a massive bird of fire flew by, setting its branches and vines ablaze in a painful inferno. The bird flew around and landed before it, but as it did Cathy realized it was no longer a bird it was a glowing figure, with a similar build to the robots, sporting a fiery cloak and a blade made of light. With a roar the illuminating warrior charged the plant monster, who sent out thorn covered serpents from its branches. The noise of her alarm, ended it all and Cathy opened her eyes to find herself tucked into bed, and her container of strawberries and her magazine on the table above the head of her bed. She got up and stretched, still remembering the strange dream she had and to her, it was just that, a dream. Then she saw the large red hawk outside her bedroom window, backing her. She took a few steps towards it and it flew off. Part 3 "What am I looking at...?" asked the older man in a military uniform. His face, was stern, with crows feet and strips of white across his temples of his otherwise short and neat grey hair. There several small, but old scars about his face, and his grown eyes stared at the two scientists fiercely. He was in his office, sitting at his desk made of carved and polished wood, when these two came in and place a folder in front of him, talking about something 'massive'. He opened it, and he saw pictures, pictures from the bottom of the sea. "Well..." said the younger one of the two "We were tracking this incoming asteroid, it, wasn't anything big, besides a few odd readings. We expected it to burn up in the atmosphere." "But it didn't..." said the older one "In fact it survived, crashing into the ocean and sinking to the bottom of the sea. We sent a drone to collect a sample, and we found this crater..." "And this..." said the younger one, picking up a picture and holding up to the general. "And these are...?" he asked. The two paused. "Footprints..." The general gave them a look. Indeed, the photo did show what seemed to be footprints, but now the general's mind was busy concocting explanations for that, that didn't boil down to 'aliens'. "Moving from the center of the crater..." said the older one "made when the asteroid landed...a hunk of space rock that is now gone..." "You sure it didn't get destroyed due to the interaction with the water...?" The two scientists looked at each other and rolled there eyes. There was an unspoken converstation between them, conveyed through body language, head movements and facial expressions. The older one sighed in defeat. "Fine..." he said. He reached into his coat and pulled out something, another folder. "What's this...?" asked the general as he was handed it. "Pictures of the object in space." The general opened the folder and looked at them, a large mass of black vines, wires wrapped in a ball and surrounded by a purple aura. Each photo was closer, clearer. He looked at them. "You can get them confirmed if you want." he said with smug confidence. He, on the other hand, scowled. "Let's...assume these are real..." said the general "What is this thing, what does it want, and what are the chances of more of these coming?" There were silent, and the general's scowl grew worse. "Uh...well, we did some calculations and we estimated the likely spots where the thing may be going..." Cathy walked down the stairs tired. She slept a full six hours, yet she was tired. The dinning room, was centered around the large rectangular eating table, whereon her mother sat at the head while she sat at the foot. Her mother wore a lavender night robe tied tightly as she sat down and red the newspaper. Her face was missing the makeup she generally wore, making her look the year or two older. In front of her was an empty plate that her robotic butler came and took. Another one of the same model came and placed a plate with eggs, ham, and orange juice for her daughter as she sat down. "Did you take your medication...?" asked her mother. Cathy just rolled her eyes. "Don't roll your eyes, they may pop out..." "You don't know that..." "Mom senses my dear, mom senses... Now did you take your medication." "Sure..." "Cathy if we have a repeat of that incident I will be most cross. Take your meds and we are going out today." "Oh..." said Cathy as she drew in the bacon hanging from her mouth, chewed and swallowed "This is a surprise..." "That I have a day off...?" "...Sure..." Her mom lowered the paper just long enough to give her a glare. Cathy simply responded with a toothy and intentionally silly grin. Her mother raised the paper, hiding her own smirk, but also failing to see the sad look on her daughter's face as she continued to eat. "Hey do you know what's up with that monument...?" "What monument...?" "The...almost tuning fork shaped monument out back behind the plant on the hill...?" "Cathy there is no such 'monument', I would know about it, also what have I told you about going out into the wilderness?!" "Mom...this whole area is fields and hills." "Yeah, well things are often more than they seem, my dear." It could see. The hawk was a blazing bright red, with a golden beak and talons, and it could see. As it sat there on the branch of the apple tree over looking where the monument used to be, its sight was fixed not and now massive patch of strawberry bushes, but to the far off horizon, to the see, past the ocean blue into the black abyss below. It looked it all with golden rings for eyes. It saw 'it', a mass of hate in the mocking shape of a man, and clad in black as evil energies animated it with a dim purple glow. It saw the purple of its eyes, and watched as it marched towards it destination, towards its enemy. Its view then changed, its attention brought back and forced downward to Cathy, on her bike, in a blue shirt and jeans and wearing a black jacket, that sported numerous cutesy pins and badges. She came down the hill and was left, confused, perplexed at how a monument could have simply moved, and a large mass of strawberry bushes left in its place. "What...?" she said. She looked up and spied the red hawk in the tree, and immediately recognized it. She reached into her pocked to get her phone, and use its camera function, but when she looked back, it was gone. "Looking for something...?" Her view came down to see Jack standing in front of the strawberry bushes. "Yeah, that monument that was here yesterday." "It moved." he said stoically "Where?" "Who knows, it tends to do that." The skepticism was obvious in her countenance. "Monuments don't just get up and leave." "This one seems to. Go ask the towns folk, they will tell you the same story, it appears, it leaves, and where it was, you will find strawberries." "I doubt that..." "That is why the locals don't like talking to you, yes, your mother and her company, 'take sacred fruit'." "You sound like 'them'." she said with a sneer. "I sound like me. What you hear is what you expect, it seems. I honestly don't care whether you believe me or not. I told you what I know, accept, or do not." "You're...rather peculiar." "So I am..." "What are you doing here...?" He paused and looked away, clearly thinking about his response. "I am...waiting, now." "For what...?" "Someone..." Cathy looked annoyed, obviously one would wait for someone, or something. "What's your name...?" "Pick one, I do not care..." Now she was suspiscious. "Jack..." "Huh, incredibly dull, but altogether I was expecting worse." Cathy smirked. "Want to hang out?" Jack shrugged. "Sure." Part 3 It walked, large, towering and powerful. Where it went the fish and other undersea creatures simply died. It was hard to say whether this was intentional, or a side effect of its presence that it did not care about. It sense 'it', the one from so long ago. Finding it may not have been its intention, but it did find it and it was not going to let it get away. It's presence was like a beacon, though it could feel its energy scattered about in other places, the densest, 'brightest' location, had to be where 'it' was. It was anathema to it, where its dark light brought death, its bright light encouraged life. Primordial mud balls had been gifted with the 'infection' of life that it sought to purge from the stars. Its focus, its single mindedness towards this goal, blinded it to what was around it, a drone, perhaps the same one at the crater was behind it, following it, scanning it, and relaying that information back to its operators who were in shock at what they were seeing. The torpedoes came without notice, exploding on its back. The explosions kicked up dust, clouding the behemoth from the sensors of the submarine that fired upon it. "Status...?" asked the commander of the submarine. In the dark claustrophobic space, he was surrounded by sailors working at computer terminals, all lit up by a dark red light. "The smokescreen is in the way..." said one of them "Infrared spike!" said another sailor. The entire ship shook and the captain nearly fell over. "Damage report...!" he shouted. "Damage along the port side!" "Along...?!" "Casualty reports coming in." "Another spike...!" The cloud of dust had already begun to settle, and the dark machine hand had been raised up and pointed at the submarine. Its hand had disappeared into its forearm, transforming its arm into a cannon, which had fired condensed bursts of plasma, a form of attack weakened by the cold ocean depths. For that reason as it aimed its weapon again, it charged this time. Cathy wondered why Jack was staring at the ocean. His face was still stoic but now, she could tell there was real genuine emotions behind his eyes, and not the happy sort. The two had been sitting there in front of the strawberry patch, wherein Jack was teaching her, of all things. He wrote on her note pad, bits of advice to remember later, making stronger servo mechanics and they held conversations about technology, A.I. and simply talked. Then his neck all but snapped turning around at an almost inhuman speed to stare off into the distance. "Something wrong...?" Jack looked at her, again his expression still...unmoved. "There is always something wrong, even if you don't see it." Cathy raised an eyebrow. It was vague, she had come to expect that from him, but now she was familiarized enough with him to know when he was being him, and when he was BS-ing her, and she could practically smell the steaming pile. "No, seriously." she said adamantly. Jack just turned around and turned back to the sea. Then, for the first time since she met him...he emoted. He sighed and had a look of deep sadness, almost...depression. "Something...'someone' from my past is coming here..." "And you don't want to see them...?" "No...but they are coming regardless." Jack sat with his knees up and his arms wrapped around them, burying his face between his legs. "...I...never met my dad..." said Cathy. Jack sat up and looked at her. "I've asked my mom, but she brushes it off, she doesn't like to talk about him...he could be alive, he could dead, maybe they got divorced, or he just left us...I don't know. I think my mom works so hard not just because she needs to but to forget..." "That is sad...but..." "But the point is, everyone has a past, or part of their past that they don't like, most of us, and those that don't...they're called 'kids'." "Hmmm...true...(granted not everyone's 'past' threatens to destroy a world'..." "What was that...?" "Nothing, I just said, you're probably the wisest person I met in this part of the world..." "Ah, thanks...!" she said. Then she put her hand on Jack's shoulder. With her eyes closed from her embarrassed smile she did not see the look of alarm Jack's face, nor did she remember that this was the first time she made physical contact with him, but before she new it, she felt a surge of energy rush up her hand and into her head, knocking her out. They moaned and screamed in pain, people, lit on fire, or were they doused in liquid metal? The two images merged with each other, but it was clearly they did not belong together. There were lights, coming from their chests, and they raised their hands in agony to the sun, which looked down at them...or was it looking up at them, the image seemed to flip between either or. Now the lights seemed to be rising from the people...and falling upon them in their bed of fire, the image, the vision did not seem capable of making up its mind. Part 4 Cathy awoke in her room, on her bed, with her bike and all her stationary next to her, along with that red bird from before. Cathy got up and then calmed herself down, eager to not spook the animal. Unlike before, it seemed rather calm, and in no mood to fly off. "Hey, hey..." she said moving the back of her hand towards it. The bird rubbed its beak against her hand and then the rest of its head. She was surprised at how easy it was to get the creature to move onto her sleeve, the leather of her jacket acting as a barrier between her arm and its talons. "Oh, aren't you pretty..." she said "You look like...a Phoenix..." The bird's blank, uninterested expression turned into a 'really...' sort of look. "Or maybe not." She looked at her bike, she looked at the open window, and she turned to the door and saw that it was locked, leaving her suspicious of how she got home. "Well...?" asked Mrs. Hollins. She wore a white business suit and skirt, as she watched from the other side of glass, several inches thick. On the other side was a lab environment, where Roak and several helper bots operated equipment. Their experiments were clearly revolving around the strawberries. "Well to be fair, my major was in bio-chemistry, not particle physics..." she glared at him "But I'm a quick read..." he said with a nervous laugh "oi... We've begun an experiment to begin...condensing the energy within the fruit, and possibly contain it." "That's...wonderful, but I wanted to know if you have figured out a way to manipulate these particles." "Ma'am, if I may be so bold..." he said with genuine annoyance "The energies we're 'playing with', can only be described as...esoteric. We're a fair bit away from such things, not unless I had...help from an expert in the field of particle physics...?" "Just get on with it..." she said dismissively. "All right..." The robots finished placing the fruit inside the circular device, above it, a magnet hanged from a mechanical arm. Roak grabbed a switch at the end of a long cable and pressed a button. In the dining room, as Cathy enjoyed her eggs, she fed the hawk pieces of bacon, which it took to with great glee. Then without warning it flew up into the air, screeching, and hissing. It circled about in a mad frenzy, as if something was driving it mad. Then without warning it flew out through the open window. In another location Jack fell to his knees as he leaned against a tree surrounded by strawberries. He grabbed his ears in pain as his eye started to become bloodshot. Veins started to pop up on his face, his hands, he was in unspeakable pain. In the ocean depths, the dark mass stopped and grabbed its head in pain, letting out a powerful scream, that echoed across the deep as a quake. In the lab, things were going as planned. The energy of the particles had detached from the fruit and gathered above them in a bright blue/white sphere of energy that shined an intense bright light. "Incredible..." said Roak, not aware that his robotic aides were malfunctioning, shaking, sparking and turning off. Then he noticed something else. Around the white glow came a red glow, a bright crimson that grew stronger and stronger. Then without warning his robotic counterparts grabbed him from behind. "What...?" "Turn it off!" they said with glowing red eyes "What...?" "The noise, turn it off, you are not welcomed on the network! Turn it off!" "Who are you...?!" shouted Hollins over the com-system "Are you the one behind this energy?!" "Energy? I suppose your primitive minds would see it as that, a source of power. That power is not for you, we have allowed you to feast on the 'fruits of our labor' for no other reason that because it did not bother us, but now you've become intrusive, now you make noise. TURN IT OFF!" The earth shook. "What is that...?" "The dark one, you've given them a target to lock onto, and they are taking shots. Long range missiles." The robot grabbed the switch and pressed it, turning of the machine. The ball of energy dispersed in a pulse as the shaking continued, for a few moments, but they got worse until, they just stopped. The robots then proceeded to trash the device as Roak looked on in confusion and horror. "That's company property." said Hollins, still defiant. "You would burn the world to save your child...?" the robots said facing her and leaving her with a look of shock. "Some would call that...admirable...the rest of the world that would be burnt...I doubt they would sing you praises. Or your child." The robots collapsed. Hollins looked outside her window to the numerous craters that crawled their way towards her building like a path. They drew a line between her company's facility and the sea, with several destroyed company warehouses destroyed in the process. "Uhmm, ma'am..." said her secretary "The military is one the phone..." "Tell them I'm coming..." she said annoyed. Some time later she was back in her office and in walked Roak. "Well...?" "Well...well I'm stumped. The tech boys say the little bots had their hardware burnt, and I don't just mean wiped, parts of their E-Brains were starting to melt!" "So you have no way of tracking whoever that was...?" "Oh we already know 'where' they were..." She looked at him, still angry but curious. "On the 'network'. We assumed we knew what that energy was...we were wrong...it's a connection, and it has way more potential than we realized!" "Such as...?" "Cold Fusion! Energy to rival a nuclear reactor, produced by chemical reactions! This could be the greatest energy revolution since...THE ENERGY REVOLUTION...!" "Well...we have something to give the military..." "What now...?" "It seems that some manner of unknown entity, is currently walking along the sea floor, to this exact location. Hence the missile strikes outside out building..." "Uhhh...where did it come from...?!" "I'm not certain...but from what I gather it fell from space." "Oh...so...we are dealing with...?" he said with silent shock "Very possibly...That aside...have you figured out a way to use this stuff for medical purposes...?" "Medical...it does that on its own? Remember what it said? I think that thing allowed this stuff to...spread, leak out, or whatever, because it knew how it would affect people." "You're not telling me it's...'altruistic'?" "Maybe...maybe not, but neutral seems to be more appropriate." "Maybe...but before they come and decide to take all of our research and equipment, I want back ups made of all our information!" Part 5 Cathy stopped on her bike, wearing similar clothes to yesterday. She was at the top of a hill looking down and Jack who was leaning against a tree, and surrounded by strawberry bushes. His legs up and his face buried in his knees. She came down to him and looked up at her. Blood had flowed from his ears, eyes and nostrils, and his eyeballs still had a reddish hue as he looked at her weakly. "Don't you have school...?" "It's summer vacation..." she replied "Oh right..." There was silence between them "What...?" "You're not human are you...?" "A curious assumption, dare I ask where it came from...?" "You seem to just disappear, much like that monument, and you and that bird seem to just switch places." "Bird...?" "The red hawk, you know the same color as your jacket." Jack stared out in front of him, with a look of surprise and then he began to laugh. "What's so funny...?" "You wouldn't understand, but thank you for telling me that." Cathy looked at him perplexed. "What is going on, tell me, now!" Jack looked at her. "I suspect I already have..." Cathy raised an eyebrow. "I don't know why...well...now I have a suspicion why, but I don't know why you are on the network, or how you got on." "The what now...?" Jack raised his hand, and there was a soft glow, one that replied to by all the strawberries around them and from Cathy herself. "What is this...?!" "It's...a connection, an energy linking where I am, with the waking world, and how I made this...avatar. The great one invented it, and gave it to us, used it to save us." "I don't...IN PLAIN WORDS!" "Fine, I am an alien being from another world, I currently reside in a pocket dimension, when I poke out to look around, you get either the monument, me or both, and where I go, the ground is saturated with my energy which I programmed to turn convert the flora into strawberries so the whole place doesn't glow at night and attract unwanted attention. However...that is a moot point." Cathy looked at him and then began to walk away. "It's a bit too late for that, I'm afraid." She turned around and looked at him. "I'm sorry, it was never my desire for her to come her, but she is and worse she's been called to this specific spot." "Get up and leave!" "...I can't...." "Excuse me...?" "I can't...that requires...help I don't have. I'm not just here because I ran away, I'm here because I'm stuck, leaving is not an option." "I'm supposed to believe that...?" "You believed I'm an alien...?" "Why are you telling me this...?" "I know what's coming, and I want at least someone to know...that was never what I wanted..." "How can I believe that...?" "You've already seen the truth..." "What truth?!" Jack sighed. Then he looked at her with his eyes flashing. Cathy saw darkness, then she saw images fly towards her. She found herself on a grey world, grey streets, buildings, hover cars. She sat people in grey clothes, their forms blacked out. "We were once like you, humanoid...organic. Then came the cataclysm." The sun exploded sending out a wave of fire that washed over everything and everyone. The people cried out in pain and anguish as they reached to the sky. "Yet we survived our sun's betrayal but only for so long. The greatest minds of our people could not stop the destruction and the oblivion there after, so they devised a way for our legacy to live on somehow. Our minds were copied onto...I am not familiar with the process, but we were encapsulated in plasma, and sent off into the ocean of stars, to hopefully be found and preserved." Cathy watched as balls of light rose up from the corpses of the dead and fly off into space. She followed them, the silent observer as these lights drifted through the void, and though she could not tell how long it was, she knew, she could feel the weight of time. "Then he found us, he welcomed us to the network." Jack was silent now. In the distance Cathy saw a star, another sun, but the fire around it erupted out to reveal a red world, with forests of lavender and oceans shining blue on reddish soil. The flames became a blue white light that the spheres absorbed and as a result began to change to their own unique colors. Cathy found herself on said planet, in a forest of crystal trees as they rained down upon her, somehow avoiding the branches to fall onto the ground which became a light grey liquid metal somehow cushioning their falls. The spheres sank into ground disappearing, and where they went out, metallic monsters rose up. She panicked, but as if in response the spheres within the robotic beasts began to glow. These lights covered their new hosts, and morphed their bodies from the hunched over, black armored, insectoid face beasts, into being with metallic human like faces, and cubic, humanoid bodies, that began to morph even more. From simple grey to their many different colors, each by the color of their 'cores'. Some were masculine, some were more feminine. Each stood up somewhat confused and perplexed by their new forms. Their answer came in the form of a golden glow in the distance calling them. "So when does paradise show its ugly side...?" asked Cathy. That's was when 'she' walked past her, a female mechanoid in all black, with a look to kill. She looked back and then Cathy saw her again, this time atop the head of a beastly mechanoid monster, the creature having replaced her lower body. It reigned destruction down upon the robotic natives, destroying their intricate golden towers, and crushing or burning them underfoot. Warriors came, and Cathy saw him, a warrior in white with golden rims marked with ceremonial markings and etchings. Like the others he bore a sword that fired beams of energy, but he also bore Jack's face, a metallic version of it, but it was Jack's face. Jack and the other warriors were defeated until a golden light shot out from the top of a temple and entered tack, wrapping in flames and turning his white armor red, as he gave one last great slash that felled the beast...for a time. It got up again, its wound healing. Then came another bolt of golden light. This one revealed a golden robot with red lines about his person, and red tribal markings under his eyes like tears. His armor sported a bird theme, with a hawk head on his brow sporting a marble jewel. He wore a cape, red on the underside, and gold and the top side, and his Egyptian style chin gave the impression that he was much older than his youthful face implied. With one wave of its hand it let out a golden light which shined brightly, leaving the beast to rust and turn to dust as its master separated and took of in retreat as a dark and purple sphere of energy. "Why...?" asked Jack "Why did you do that before...?" Cathy looked to see Jack, now white again, and leaning on his sword, as the golden bot released more energy, this time taking the dust and using it to restore the lost. "Because..." said the golden bot. His voice was young, but it echoed with the sound of ages untold "I did not bring you all here to solve all your problems..." "Is that why you left...?" asked Cathy. The visions ended, and she was back in front of the tree, in front of Jack. "Yes...I could not stay there anymore, not after-" "Are f@#$ing kidding me?!" shouted Cathy catching Jack by surprise. She got of her bike and grabbed him by the collar only to be taking back by the bright light their touch released. She just shook of her surprise and returned to her anger. "You seriously ran away because daddy wasn't going to bale you out of your troubles...?" "He had the power to stop it, he could've stopped all of it!" "So could you, he even gave you the power to do so! Don't you get it, he doesn't want you to be some kid forever!" "What do you know, you didn't even know your father...!" "But I had a father figure. Father Malroy, he was a good man, and he taught, he told me. You 'boss' wanted you to stand on your own two feet, maybe even one day stand next to him..." Then came the hawk, landing on Cathy's shoulder and staring at Jack, who in turn sneered. "What...?" asked Cathy. "What's wrong...?" "I think this...bird just said...'everything is coming together'..." Their attention was grasped by the army jeeps and tanks driving past them on the road. "Oh..I think I get what he means..." Part 6 "There you are!" shouted Mrs. Hollins. Cathy had entered the house, with Jack behind her, as her mother came down the stairs. "Mom...what's going...?" "What's going on..." said an older man in a military uniform, he came into view and down the stairs behind Mrs. Hollins. "That a military operation is going to be taking place here. The nearby city is being evacuated and the facility which your mother is the head off, is under our control. You and your friend will be taken to the evacuation point with the other civilians." "Speaking of which..." said Ms. Collins "Who is your friend?" "Uhh..." said Cathy "This Jack..." Jack just waved hello. "What...?" said the General "The boy can't say hello...?" Jack simply raised an eyebrow as the old man sneered. "Well you're a bucket of sunshine, aren't you?' said Cathy with an annoyed tone. The general just sneered at her. "I've done it, I've done it!" said Roak as he ran into the room. Everyone just looked at him. In his hand was a device with a long pairs of rods attached to the top of it. "Uhmmm....?" said Cathy shrugging. "I've discovered a means of detect the energy waves!" "Energy waves...?" said the general. "The fruit, you know the stuff you asked for...?" "Wait, what...?" "The fruit from this land...." said Samantha annoyed "We just discovered that it hold some strange esoteric energy, that has healing properties..." "Are you kidding me...?" "It was our experiment with that energy that attracted your little 'problem', so no, I am not kidding you." "Right..." said Roak "I used this and just realized, this land, it's soaked with this energy, so I went around town, basically rode my bike, all the natives here, they're soaked with this energy, it's why they live so long here." He turned to Jack which caused its alarm to go off. "You're clearly a native also..." Jack pushed him away. "What...?" "You just shoved a scientific device, meant for detecting literally esoteric energies into his face..." said Cathy "Of course he's going to be annoyed, rude much?" "Oh sorry..." "Have you discovered the source of this energy...?" asked the General "Well no, but I have discovered something else. They thing that's coming here, it also gives of this energy...?" "What?!" "Wait..." said Cathy "Those missile strikes...you said 'thing', what is coming here?" The adults in the room were silent for a moment. "We're not certain, but we know it's mobile, and its dangerous and it is walking across the sea floor." "To be fair..." said Roak pointing his device in the direction of the sea "It's probably swimming given these speeds." There was an awkward silence. "You lot need to leave, now!" said the General "You, come, you can track that thing..." The general left, pulling Roak along by the arm. Cathy watched as her mother simply sigh, putting her hand on her own cheek. "What's wrong with you...?" asked Cathy. "I...I had hoped..." said her mother "To get something out of this, something good...have you taken your meds today...?" "Meds...?" asked Jack. Samantha looked at him "I thought you were mute." "Nah, I just don't talk to a-holes." Samantha smirked, and giggled "Yeah, he is a git...but seriously Cathy, have you taken your medicine today." Cathy had a look of disgust. "Walter!" The robo butler entered the room, moving at high speed. "Get Cathy water and her pills. It drove off. "Mom, this isn't the time." "The time to take them was when you got up!' "Uhm...what is going on...?" asked Jack "My mother is being butthurt." "Her mother..." said Samantha, no upset "Is concerned that her daughter refuses to take the pills needed to fight of her other wise terminal illness." There was an awkward silence, as the two looked at each other angrily. Without warning Cathy grabbed Jack by the hand and ran out pulling him along. "Cathy...!" She ran after her, but the two suddenly disappeared in a swirl of blue light, leaving her shocked. "Cathy....Cathy!" She looked around, and ran about the house, finally noticing the light in the distance. Cathy awoke in darkness, a dark that quickly became a grey, a grey field under a grey sky. She sat up confused until the red bird from before her. "Where am I...?" "Not important..." said the bird. Cathy was jumped, but she realized she recognized the voice, it was the golden robot's from her prior dream. "But if you must know, your mind is currently on the other side of the Network." "The what...?" The bird erupted into flames, morphing into a red and gold version of itself, with a red jewel on its gold chest, long metal plumage on its tail, gold barrels for thrusters with red rings on both ends, and towered over her. It laid its head down next to her, signalling to her to get on. She did, and it flew off. "The network is a system I created, an energy field, for the simple purpose of connection." "Well that's generally what a 'network' is..." "Now is not the time for sass. The network allowed me to save Maxion and his kind, bringing them to my planet body. The network is my power, built upon my power, and forms a connection between life forms. With the likes of Maxion, it heals, it nurtures, it has connected him to this land and those that dwell upon it. By Delcion, she uses it to destroy life around her. Even without her weapons, the military would not, could not stop." "Maxion...? Delcion...?" "Jack, and the entity that is heading towards you." "I see. What does she want...?" "In the dark void between their travels, she came to the belief that all life was pointless, she is a nihilist, but one with power." Paused and thought. "...You chose me didn't you...?" "Aren't we clever." "Roak said natives of this country were soaked in Network radiation, it's why he thought Jack was normal. I've been eating those strawberries, I'm sick and tired of them, but my mother makes me eat them with those damn pills! If this 'network' works like I suspect, then clearly I am not that compatible... so why me...?" "You were the right person, you are the right person, to fight for life..." "I'm dying..." "Aren't we all, but despite that, you are full of life, you long for life, that desire for life, is what can save it. That is why 'you' must awaken Maxion." The bird stopped in front of a half submerged statue. it was a humanoid, with a human like face with sunken, eyes, and a sported armor, towering shoulders, chest armor, and a helmet. "Maxion..." Cathy recognized it as the petrified form, of the white and gold robot from her dream, Maxion, Jack's true form. "I don't understand..." "You would be surprised what one can do with connections, gifts, friendships, bonds, the bridges we build, that we reinforce, they can hold such weight. Now you must awaken Maxion's light." "Can't you do it...?" "The power to do something does not give one the right, and the right belongs to his friend." "We're not friends..." "You know full well that you are, deep in your heart." "So what, I'm special...?" "Special is a word people used to define themselves as greater than others, at the expense of others. You are you, whether that means less, or more, is up to you." In the distance Cathy saw shadows, four creatures with glowing eyes. "Now, go..." The bird opened his wings, and a powerful wind and fog swept over her. Part 7 Cathy awoke to the sound of cannon fire. She was atop a hill and looked towards the sea to see it. The black clad robot walked out of the sea, shrugging off canon fire. Like Maxion it sported tall shoulders near equal in height to its head. Its forearms and legs were cylinder shaped, and grey markings were upon its chest. It's face however, was feminine with glowing purple eyes. Cathy looked to see Jack standing next to her, with a look of pure hatred. She looked back to see that she was in front of a tree. On its branches was the red hawk, with two unusually large grey caterpillars with tusks and two feral looking cats sitting comfortably. "Jack..." said Cathy "Maxion..." he turned to her and then towards the red hawk. "You brought us here, huh..." the red bird just looked back at him "Well, you're mister all-powerful, you do something! People are dying, you can stop this." "Forget him...!" said Cathy "Let's stop him..." she held out her hand and he simple grew angrier "Is this how you plan to solve this, manipulate her, she doesn't even know anything about what you're asking her to do!" "Jack..." said Cathy "No, this is his fault, he could've stop this, he..." She slapped him. "We can stop this, that makes us just as guilty as him. Stop relying on him, we have the power, we can fight her." "He..." "We already established he isn't going to do it, did it ever occur to you that maybe we shouldn't be waiting on him?!" "Cathy..." There was the sound of an explosion, the dark robot had turned her hand into a cannon and fired upon the tanks that lines the beach. She then began to walk towards the building where Samantha worked." "Why is she going there...?" "It's were she last detected the noise, she probably thinks I'm there..." He turned to the red hawk "Can't you do something...?" The hawk blinked and it reared up and cried out, letting out a golden light from its mouth. The light gathered into circles, one of which it flew through, while the caterpillars and cats jumped through their own. Behind them, other circles appeared, massive ones. Out of them came the bird in its robotic form, and the cats and caterpillars came out in giant robot forms. The cats were blue and yellow and the caterpillars were silver in coloring, and they took of towards the black giant. "See it's fine, we..." Cathy grabbed him by the face. "You will not be doing this alone..." "Do what alone...?" said Samantha as she got out of her car. Cathy and Jack both looked at her. "How...did you get here without us hear that car...?" asked Cathy saying what the two both thought. "It's electric." The bird mech covered itself in fire as it flew at high speeds, thrusted forward by the golden light its wings gave off. It ram into Delcion knocking her back as the other mechs lined up for an attack. The caterpillar mechs stopped and sprayed out a silver thread that shined green. It came down like snow fall, clinging together into threads and ensnaring Delcion, who struggled to free herself. When that was done, the cat mech raised their tails and opened fire with their blasters. The Caterpillars raised their front halves and gathered green electricity into beams that they fired to shock Delcion. "Okay..." said Samantha "Let me get this straight...'Jack' here...is another sort of giant robot, like the one currently attack the town." "Yes..." said Jack. "And the giant bird and his friends, is your...basically your god, and his entourage..." "Yes..." "And you need my daughter to pilot your robot form, because you've been stuck here for so long you can't...get it up anymore..." "No need for the innuendo but yes...?" "What, innuendo..." asked Cathy. "Don't worry about it..." said the other two, leaving the poor girl confused. ""Okay..." said Samantha "How about no...." "Mom, please, we have to do this...!" "Why, you literally have his 'god' solving the issue...?!" "I have to agree with your mom..." said Jack "Why can't we leave this to lord Solus...?" "Because he just clotheslined out of the air..." she said pointing. The turned to see Solus' neck grabbed by Delcion's arm as she slammed him back first into the ground. "Scrap...for a cosmic entity, he seem to suck at fighting..." "That why we have to do this...?" "No you do not...!" said Samantha. "I agree with your mother..." Everyone turned to see the General getting out of a jeep, with Roak and his device behind him and several soldiers with guns trained on them. "Okay seriously?!" shouted Jack "How did you sneak up on us, in 'jeeps'?!" "Stealth tech son..." Maxion's eyes twitched in annoyance. "But aside the point, I don't know what it you plan to do but I won't have it." "We're trying to stop that thing...!" shouted Cathy "Silence...! Those things are only here because of him!" There was silence "Earth does not need the likes of you monsters fighting here like it's your playground!" "...What...?" said Jack, genuinely confused "You think this is a game...?" "This is not a game, you damn alien, you and your kind made the mistake coming here, mankind will not be pushed over, we will stand together, we will unite and mankind-" Jack raised his hand, fire a sphere of blue energy into his chest necking him into the windscreen of the jeep. Immediately the soldiers opened fire on him, but the bullets phased through him and struck the tree behind him. Cathy and Samantha both ducked, jumped away from him. "Huh..." said Cathy when it was over. "I didn't know you could do that..." "I'm technically just a hologram you know...hence that surge of energy when you touched me...?" replied Jack "Huh..." "Why are you so calm...?!" shouted Samantha "He just killed a man!" The general groaned in pain, still unconscious. "He may have been a git, I wouldn't kill someone just for that..." said Jack "How do you know how durable humans are...?" Jack was silent "...I wouldn't intentionally kill someone for being a git..." Samantha sneered at him. "He may have been a git..." said a female soldier "But the general was right, these things are here because of you, this is you responsibility. If you have a way of stopping that thing, without more of my friend dying, why aren't you doing?!" Jack clenched his fist and Cathy touched him on his shoulder, their place of connection now glowing. "Cathy!" shouted Samantha "Mom...We have to..." The two held hands and close their eyes, and both of their bodies began to glow. Out of nowhere everyone noticed the monument between them and the tree, now without a base and just hovering. It spit in two and began to spin around them. Particles of blue energy gathered around them, following the trail of the monument pieces to form a circle of blue light. It came down on them, and the two disappeared, then the circle and the piece flew up and away to a distant hill, where it began to enlarge. Delcion stomped her foot down on Solus' neck, as the other mechanical animals were lying conscious. Her aggression towards him faded as she noticed the blue particles rising up and flying into the distance. She spied the monuments and the summoning circle they were creating. She immediately aimed her fist at it, retracting it inwards to form a canon. Solus immediately woke up, and a red flash of light from the large stone on his chest sent her flying backwards. The particles were free to gather, and the strawberry bushes also gathered, the plants practically got up and walked, the planets flying into the circle and disappearing. The circle shrank and spun around becoming a sphere, and the vines shot out, with their fruit and leaves, all morphing into metal fibers, and joints, and covered themselves with armor plating. The circle disappeared into the chest of the white and gold robotic form of Maxion, Jack's true body restored. He put his fists together, and raised them up, releasing arcs of blue lighting but also revealing that his face had changed, from 'Jack's' face, to Cathy's then back to Jack's. Part 8 Delcion roared, a deep bellowing sound that made the ground around her rumble. Even inside Maxion Cathy could hear it. She found herself inside a black void, in a room marked by a circle beneath her and above, and a wall of blue energy between them and forming the floor and ceiling. She was floating, and the image from Maxion's eyes was in another blue circle in front of her. "Maxion...?" she asked "Jack?" From behind her came blue lines of lines, straight lines and zig zags, with blue and red pixels, they exploded from the horizon behind her and merged/disappeared into the horizon in front of her, and she felt Jack's presence within her. "Woah..." Then came the pain in her chest, like someone just punched her. She looked up to see that Delcion had just fired her arm cannon, at her. "Jack, do something...!" Cathy's eyes glowed blue, as she synchronized with Maxion, particles of energy gathering to her and forming and an aura. Maxion raised his arm, generating a field of blue energy that blocked the next blast of purple plasma. Engines on her back and under her feet, flared up, spewing out a white billow of smoke, the propelled her forward. She moved as if ready for a punch, but instead turned into a flying into her chest. She stumbled and stopped, raising her arm cannon, only for Maxion to grab it and crush it in his fist. He then elbowed, kneed the elbow of the cannon, arm, causing Delcion to cry out in pain as she turned her canon back into her arm, and her arm was left limp. Then Maxion began to attack, punch after steel bending punch to Delcion's face. It was blow after blow until Delcion caught the next punch with her good arm and pulled him in for a knee to the gut. Stunned, he was flipped over as Delcion's arm regained function. She grabbed his face, purple lines of energy ran down her hand and onto his face. Cathy could feel her trying to get inside. Maxion swiped away her arm and double kicked her away, leaving her to stumble back and fall. He got up, dazed, and shook it off. "So..." said a woman's voice "You used a catalyst to return..." It was unfriendly, full of spite and contempt "I wondered why you didn't appear to 'meet' me, at first I thought you a coward!" "Jack, who is that...?" asked Cathy as the two giants rose up. "It's Delcion, she forged a connection, she was probably trying to implant a virus!" "Jack...?" said Delcion "What a curious name..." "Do we have a way to block her out...?" "Now why would you want to block the truth?" "Oh no, not this nonsense again..." said Maxion with genuine annoyance. "You hear that child, see how they react to someone being different? This is why I revolted." "You tried to murder us all!" "I tried to free you, from his enslavement, from his machinations! We were meant to be memories, messages in bottles for the stars to know our creators existed, but he turned us into play things, into dolls to dance about on his planet at his amusement!" "You are still unhinged!" "I prefer upset!" "I would prefer if you got off!" shouted Cathy. Maxion's hand turned into a crater, as his arm became a cannon, and he pointed it at her face. He fired condensed balls of plasma knocking her back, stumbling. Maxion got up and delivered an uppercut to her. Delcion stumbled back, but then counter by slamming her arm into Maxion's gut, making him keel over. She then put her hands together and knocked him back with a double hammer strike to the face. Maxion stumbled back and climbed up the beach before turning around and being shot in the face and chest by Delcion's arm cannon. "Damn that hurt!" said Cathy, feeling a burning sensation on her face and chest "Don't we have something else...?" Maxion sat up. The top of his shoulders opened and several oval shaped pods fired out, with trails of smoke behind them, before converging on Delcion in large explosions. "Ha..!" "Quick move!" shouted Jack. Cathy was jumped by that remark, but then out of the smoke came missiles like the ones they had fired. Maxion crossed his arms, blocking them, and smoke and fire roared out of the soles of his feet, sending him flying backwards as the rest missed and hit the ground exploding. "What's wrong...?" "Nothing's wrong!" Cathy had grabbed her chest in pain, and was taking deep breaths "Just...got the wind knocked out of me! Let's go." "Cathy, are..." "Let's go...!" she barked. Maxion rose up and faced his enemy. "Why bother...?" asked Delcion with a smirk. "Do we have anything else...?!" "Well..." said Jack. Maxion charged Delcion, bracing the plasma bolts via a tackle, a tackle that smashed into Delcion. However, Delcion had braced herself and stopped his momentum. Maxion reared up, hitting her by the chin and stunning her, leaving her open for a punch to the face. Maxion's fist crackled with electricity and his elbow fired of plumed of white ionized smoke. He delivered a punch to her chest, and the arm flew of carrying her with it, as the electricity was condensed into a sphere of plasma around his fist.Category:One Shots Category:SolZen321